Chapter 3 Summary

Robert Jordan studies the bridge from a distance of about fifty yards. He sketches the bridge in a notebook and notes where the charges should be placed to blow out the middle section of the bridge and drop it into the gorge below. As he sketches, Anselmo worries they have gone too close to the bridge. Robert Jordan then studies the sentry box with a pair of field glasses. He assesses the situation and sees no telephone wires coming from the sentry box. He is too far away to see the box on the opposite side of the bridge. He watches the sentry closely. The men hide when the sentry walks from the box onto the bridge.

Robert Jordan asks Anselmo about the other box and learns it is about five hundred meters away. There are seven men and a corporal at this post, which is located...